Adventures of Mimsy's Kittens – Journal Entry 3

Thought I'd better hunt for Mimsy's kittens after she moved them a couple of weeks ago. I had a pretty good idea where she'd taken them – the old dilapidated shed we have right near the cattery. It's falling apart and a bit of a safety hazard so I spent Saturday morning removing iron sheets, fallen wooden doors and lots of scrap metal from the vicinity so that the kittens could move around in relative safety. They'll also be exposed to the elements because the shed has no roof and we a HUGE downpour the other day so I'll do what I can to make them comfortable without actually touching them and freaking out their mother. 

I also sadly found the body of the white and ginger kitten that had died – or should I say what remained of it. Only the dried out skin and hair from its back was left. I quickly buried the nameless kitten in some freshly sprung lush grass.

The other three kittens were under the broken floorboards as I suspected. They're very tiny and possibly malnourished. Their eyes are half-open but their faces haven't softened yet from that just born baby look to the traditional cutesy kitten archetype. I'd say it will take another two weeks for that to happen. The first time I saw them, the remaining white and ginger one was sleeping with its head on the side of one of the black ones who in turn was sleeping with its head on the white and ginger one. They looked like the ying and yang symbol. Pity I didn't have my camera on me. 

They're too little to be scared at this stage, although I did hear a little hiss this morning. They move around slowly and topple a bit. I had one question answered when I observed them – although they're only about four weeks old, one of them actively cleaning her- or himself so that was interesting information to file away in the memory banks.

I've been leaving low-lactose kitty milk in a shallow dish for them in the morning – shallow so they can crawl up to it and drink over the lip but not fall in and drown. The milk is gone when I return but I'm unsure whether it's been drunk by them or their mother. I also tried some soft kitten food but again I'm unsure of whether they're eating it or not, as I've not had the time to actually sit down for an extended period and just watch them.

I poked my camera through the floorboards this morning and here is the result. I'm going to push a bit of straw inside so it's a little bit more insulated but my master plan is to catch them in about two weeks.

The reason I'm visiting every day is so they get used to me and make the connection that I'm a food source for them. This is my pre-socialisation training. It usually doesn't take long to rehabilitate kittens that have had this kind of preparation. Mimsy's kittens have always been good that way. After that I'll need to focus on catching Mimsy and getting her desexed. I've already set the cat cage up near the cattery so she and all the other cats get used to it. I'll start putting food in there too so they (and she obviously) think of it as a benign object, get a false sense of security and actually walk inside to eat the food while the door is open. And then sometime in the near future when I just so happen to be sitting nearby, I can just close the cage door on Mimsy and whisk her down to the vet.